Sunday, 18 December 2011

We have this oddball comical affair going on in Arlington. The city is trying to buy a seven-story building (the Thomas building) around on 14th Street north. It's a business-related structure. Talk over this purchase has been going on for weeks.

The problem with the issue is that the county only intends to use five of the stories for business-related efforts. The other two stories are supposed to be renovated and made into temporary apartments for homeless folks in Arlington. You can figure it'll house around 100 folks.

Once word got out....everyone in this neighborhood got furious over the city's intent.

The cost? Well....it's been sitting on a $25.5 million offer for a long while. The present owners just aren't happy about the offer, but frankly, they apparently haven't been getting many other offers. Adding to this mess is the idea that the city may launch into eminent domain to acquire it, and just end all this negotiation business.

The locals around this neighborhood are getting into their own legal situation....trying to stop the purchase and prevent this all from happening.

Arlington is this odd area for homeless folks. Property values are such.....and apartments rent for so much....that you can't find a structure for someone who is pulling in $1k a month in this area. You need to basically relocate outside of the region or head down to Richmond. So if you did draw social security only, or some disability payment, or some military pension.....you just can't survive or find a place to call home in Arlington. It's that simple.

I can understand the charity side of this, but frankly....thrusting homeless folks into some high-cost neighborhood, and thinking locals will accept having homeless folks standing around their condo area or some restaurant....just won't work. You can gaze over at DC, and see how they've attempted this and screwed up.

Letters From Ripley

Inspired by Letters from Seneca (124-essay effort) that brought Stoicism out of the shadows.

Stoicism is the concept of accepting pains, woes, sorrows, troubles, luck, gains, losses, and life as being "part of nature". Whatever happened yesterday...simply happened....I can learn from it, gain from it, and then just accept it. No matter what the score was....there is tomorrow and I simply need to put my best foot forward.

Me?

There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood,
leads onto fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in
shallows, and in miseries. So I intend to ride out this flood upon my
virtual porch in Ripley and see where this "flood of life" takes
me...whilst sipping ice cold tea with a chunk of lemon...pondering the
comings and goings of life.